Any comments and crits would be more than welcome. My goal was to create a head shape that looks as realistic as possible.

I'm intending to send more info and snapshots as I go. Some things are on the to-do list, but I'm sure there are lots of issues that I am blind for.

I like it so far. I do see a few flaws... The under part of the chin doesn't fit with the neck, and the jaw line is too defined and should blend more with the neck. There is a pointy triangle shaped bump at the back of her neck The cleft in the chin is a bit too chiseled. I do like the shape of the head and the facial features are very pretty. I especially like the nose. The skin tone is also very well done. Just a few tweaks and I think you have something really great.

Looks great so far. Yes, the neck has to be blended in, but this you can always do later. My only real critic would be the bridge of the nose which appears to be a bit too narrow to me. Widen it a bit and make sure there is a smooth transition. in that area. Other than that, I like that morph, especially because the chin and nose give here a very different look without making her look ugly. stahlratte

Here's the next version. The chin cleft was softened a little and the nose bridge widened. These were both things I hadn't noticed before.

I was planning to do the neck together with the rest of the body when I am happy with the head. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. The strange bumps at the transition are really irritating. Here I have hidden them a bit in postwork.

Other modifications: eye area refined, brows and lower lip slightly reshaped, chin broader and with a sharper edge towards the lower lip, tiny fix where ear meets cheek.

I'll do a few more small things, I guess, but overall I'm pretty happy with it now.

Next to the body...

Much better :) I just realized who she looks like. The picture on the right in the first post looks like a side profile for Catherine Zeta Jones. And maybe a little like Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway).

Acadia, that's interesting. No, she wasn't ment to be either of them. Actually, I used an actress as a reference, but unfortunately I didn't manage to achieve a very good likeness. It still helped me a lot with the realism, I think.

Olaf - she's looking better all the time. IMO her profile looks more realistic than for front-on shape. Also, there is a bit of texture-bleading from the bottom of her lower lip (in the middle). You can use the Pinch Transformation to pull the lower lip vertices back up.

I agree with face-off, for some reason she looks more realistic in profile than head-on. Maybe she needs a little bit of asymmetry? Excellent work nonetheless. BTW, in profile she immediately reminded me of German actress Franka Potente... - Graham

Excellent morph! I love the way her nose is very realistic (it's the main part I hate in a vicky - the hard-edged nostrils ^_^ ) She looks very non-vickily :)

Are you planning to do some more work with her eyes? now the eyelids are very sharp and uneven, I mean the edge between the lid and inner eye.

And she does look like Franka and I like that :))

4be

Here are some profile pictures of Catherine Zeta Jones: http://www.clooneynetwork.com/clooneyworld/itc/images/003.jpg http://www.clooneynetwork.com/clooneyworld/images/pics/movies/itc/007.jpg http://www.clooneynetwork.com/clooneyworld/itc/images/009.jpg http://www.galawallpapers.com/pictures/13/1364/Michael_Douglas_and_Catherine_Zeta-Jones.jpg Here are some pictures of Kate Mulgrew. The chin is different, but the rest of the face is close to your morph: http://www.jupiter-station.com/Snap2.jpg http://www.visimag.com/tvzone/images/t128_feat_pic1.jpg http://www.perelin.de/voyager/bilder/janeway4a.jpg

May I ask which version of Poser your using and which textures. These images look great. Are you even rendering in Poser, or something else? Mike

Hey Olaf, #4 on profile Cheek to nostril is severed. Too much smoothing has broken the line there. May have to fill again. In profile, You can see the eye orbital needs to be negated backwards behind eyebrow. A subtle(she's young) negating at temples to pull it out further....give her a scull. On lacrimals,,,no better time to fix them. Look in a mirror or photo and honestly look at how prominant they are...Almost non existant at a glance. Big realism killers, here on V3...The right lacrimal "housing" has gotten pulled off the UVs a bit(#1). I've flattened them successfully and if you are careful, you can get a better transition to eyewhite. Ears imo are a tad high on the head. A tad forward too. This is giving her an "elfish" look. When you do the neck, all the earwork will come into play. Jaw is a structure, not a crease,,,etc. Easy to fix. Architecture around the ear is complex. Lots happenning. If you get it right, a big plus. Good time to drive the ear and nostril orifices in deeper too. Hope this helps.

Again, thanks for all the interesting and helpful comments.

face_off: Yes, you're right about the bleeding. I just noticed
it recently. I guess I should try loading the texture into ZB2 to have
a more immediate feedback for things like that.

And I agree: she looks more realistic in profile. I've got a couple of
ideas why that is. Let's see...

gps: Congratulations, you've got it. Franka Potente is my
reference. The likeness isn't very good, I think, but maybe it will
become better over time.

Yes, I think that asymmetry is very important to make faces
realistic. I don't dare to introduce any asymmetries, yet, though,
because I'm afraid it will make subsequent modification steps harder.

Acadia: Well, I guess there is some similarity in the eyes. And
eyes, of course, are very important. She's probably as close to
Zeta-Jones as she is to Potente, so I can't say you're wrong. :-) But
I don't see much of Mulgrew in her. Be it as it is. Most important to
me is that she looks good, and as real as I can get her with Poser.

4blueyes: Yes, I am indeed not completely happy with that
area. I'll see what I can do about it (eventually).

egaeus: I am using Poser 6 and the HyperREAL texture by
Morris. I am also using face_off's script that goes with the
texture. Some of the lighting tricks I also learned from Paul
(face_off), other's are my own. Or, rather, standard things I learned
by watching a lot of TV. :-)

richardson: So many little things... I must say, I really
admire your sharp eye and your knowledge of anatomy. I've got myself a
nice reference book now, so I'll see what I can do. Can you explain
again about the eye orbital and the eyebrow? I'm not sure I
understand.

By the way, I've just noticed that her eyebrows are too high up. Maybe
that's what the problem is. In the photos I looked at, you really
don't see any indentation between the upper lids and the brows,
because her brows are rather low and her upper lids pretty fleshy. But
in my pictures, the brows are much higher, and so there should be one.

Olaf! Now that I know who her name is,,, You have her features but not her proportions. Her face is much more masculine. Her jaw much lower and more pronounced. Her eyes are much smaller and narrower. Slits when she smiles.. Ears are lower and rotated back quite a bit. Nose seems large but once the jaw and eyes are changed, should work. Narrower bridge, though. Temples are narrow in my photo. Cut in right behing the brows Higher forehead too. Yep. She's a heartbreaker. All in all, she has a long square/oval face and flat sided. Lacrimals are not visible. Nice choice on portraits!

I've tried to smooth out the head-neck transition, which is kind of tricky, because ZB2's smooth tool doesn't work in these areas (no continuous mesh there). I ran into all kinds of other problems, which I'm not going to bore you with.

Anyway, I worked some on the facial proportions, implementing richardson's suggestions. I think the jaw needs more work in that respect, and I pulled the ear a little bit too far back. The eyes are still too wide open, but I tried to shape the skull a little more.

As usual, I'll be happy about any comments!

There is a work-around for the smooth problem in one of the other threads here. Think it had something to do with doign a "crease".

Olaf, When I hit the "hard" mesh edges that are too tight to smooth, I pull them out std add 5intensity. Then smooth it down. Takes a few tries.

Oh, and her profile is superb. Still not sold on the face-on view. 1 thing to watch out for - you shouldn't more ears (in any direction), since then hair won't fit properly. Also, the jaw just in front of the ears should be moved, otherwise you get hair glitches like above, where the hair goes into her cheek.

Message edited on: 10/10/2005 00:50

Wow, that was quick! :-) face_off: I've used the crease option. It is supposed to hold the boundaries of a mesh in place. Unfortunately, smooth sometimes ignores it. It's a hardache. Smooth can be such a big help, but it is quite a primadonna. It wants a perfect mesh. Must have four polygones around a regular vertex, two around a boundary vertex, otherwise it will do strange things. Currently, I try to avoid the seams. I think Poser internally welds the seams anyway, so a little displacement there is okay. Just not too much. At the moment, those hair problems don't bother me much. Hair can always be pulled in place by magnets. Lots of times, one has to do that, anyway (or ignore it, if one's as lazy as I am). If I were to develope a product, these would of course be important considerations. richardson: Thanks! Great tip! This should even work along the seams, if I use "crease".

Oh, another thing: I think one reason that the face-on view looks wrong is her wide-eyed stare. People just don't look at you that way. This will hopefully improve a little once I've corrected the eyes. What she really needs, though, is an expression. But before I force V3's mesh into realistic expression morphs, I'd rather try my hand on making my own. Seriously!

Anyway, I've learned a lot and I think this is starting to look like a face. Fixed the jaw and removed some unsightly swellings below the eyes and around the corners of the mouth, creating her "smile crease" (or whatever that's called in proper English).

Oh, and I did some postwork in The Gimp to give the skin a little more life. If you compare this with the previous image, which had the pure Poser renders, you should see the difference.

Comments and crits are of course still, and always, welcome.